Today, event organizers use event registration platforms to manage large databases of attendees and ticket prices and track results. So how can you make sure you have the perfect event registration strategy?
Marketing Strategies
In the fast-paced world of event planning, event tracking is an important part of ensuring a successful and impressive event. While organizing a major event is essential, effective marketing strategies play a key role in maximizing attendance and generating excitement at the event. These are several key marketing strategies that event professionals can use to increase event registrations and make their events really stand out.
1. Define your target audience
Before diving into marketing tactics, identify and understand your target audience. By defining your ideal audience, you can tailor your marketing messages and choose the right channels to reach them. Create detailed buyer personas that include demographics, preferences, and pain points. This information guides your marketing efforts and helps you create compelling messages that resonate with your audience.
2. Harness the power of social media
Social media platforms offer a wide range of opportunities to connect with your target audience and circulate the event. Create dedicated event pages or groups on platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Publish engaging content regularly, such as event updates, speakers, behind-the-scenes looks, and teasers. Encourage attendees and partners to share your posts using event hashtags and user-generated content to expand your reach.
3. Create compelling messages
To attract potential attendees, you need to effectively communicate the value and unique selling points of your event. Create compelling messages that highlight the benefits, educational opportunities, networking opportunities, and all the unique features of your event. Use clear and concise language and focus on pain points or challenges faced by your target audience and how your event can provide solutions or opportunities for growth.
4. Take advantage of email marketing
Email marketing remains one of the most effective channels for event promotion. Build an email list of potential participants and develop a series of personalized and engaging email campaigns. Segment your audience based on interests and preferences by sending targeted messages that directly address their needs. Use compelling subject lines, visually appealing designs, and strong calls to action to increase signups.
5. Develop a comprehensive marketing plan
A well-thought-out marketing plan is the backbone of successful event promotion. Start by setting clear goals and defining measurable goals for event registration. Then come up with the strategies and tactics you will use to achieve those goals. Your marketing plan should include a combination of online and offline tactics such as email marketing, social media campaigns, influencer partnerships, content marketing, paid advertising, public relations, and community engagement.
6. Collaboration with the toughest leader
Partnering with industry leaders can greatly improve the visibility and credibility of your event. Identify relevant professionals who fit the theme or target audience of your event, and explore partnership opportunities. They can promote your event through social media, blogs, or podcasts, driving traffic and registrations. Also, consider inviting influential speakers or panelists to your event, as their participation can attract a wider audience.
7. Partnerships with organizations or charities:
Partner with a local charity or non-profit organization and donate a portion of the proceeds from your event to them. This will not only increase the social impact of your event, but it can also attract a more socially conscious audience.
8. Participate in content marketing
Content marketing can make your event a trusted source of information and knowledge, increasing its appeal to potential attendees. Create and share high-quality content such as blog posts, articles, videos, and webinars about industry trends, challenges, and solutions. Optimize your content for search engines to attract organic traffic. Use calls to action in your content to direct readers to your event website and registration page.
By following our expert advice, you can increase your event registrations and create a more engaging event for your attendees. Our team is ready to create your event registration landing page with the perfect strategy.
9. Optimize the event website and landing pages
Your event website and landing pages play a key role in registration. Make sure your website is visually appealing, easy to navigate, and mobile-friendly. Clearly display important event information, including dates, location, agenda, and registration. Implement a simple and intuitive registration process, reducing the friction that can prevent potential participants from registering. Use compelling copy and images to convince visitors to take action and sign up.
Simple tips to increase event registrations:
- Start as early as possible- The sooner you start promoting your event, the more time you have to reach a wider audience.
- Create an attractive landing page for the event- Your event landing page is the first thing potential attendees notice, so make sure it’s well-designed and informative. The event registration page should be clear and easy to use. Use social media to promote your event. Share your event on social media and encourage your ideal audience to participate.
- Offer discounts or other incentives- This encourages people to register early for your event because there is something for them.
- Use multiple marketing channels: Leveraging multiple marketing channels broadens the event’s audience reach. These diverse channels enable event organizers to target specific audience segments effectively. Additionally, utilizing multiple channels offers a safeguard against promotional hiccups, ensuring that issues with one channel do not disrupt the overall promotion and registration process.
- Collaboration with influencers- Partner up with influencers who have a large following in your target audience. They can help you promote your event to their followers. An influencer can be any personal brand active on social media. This could be a panel of speakers or an event manager.
- Track your registration results- Use event recording software to track results so you can see what’s working and what’s not. Event registration platforms have in-depth analytics like open rates and landing page clicks.
Bonus tips to increase audience engagement at your event are:
- Create the atmosphere of the event: Let people know that seats are limited for the exclusive sessions, and they should register soon.
- Visualize your event: Make use of captivating visuals like images, posts, event-related blogs, teasers, and trailers while promoting your event. Try to include videos and relevant images during the event as well. The use of visual components keeps the audience invested and involved in the event.
- Set up the registration process: Ask people for their names, email addresses, and other information so you can send them personalized messages.
- Social Space and Breaks: Plan one or a few small breaks and social spaces where attendees can relax, connect, and interact with each other. This will allow them to expand their network, have meaningful conversations, and keep them engaged.
- Event accommodating devices: Make your event accessible to different devices like smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktop computers. This flexibility will allow more attendees to join and engage with your event.
- Personal is better than general: Provide post-event content. Send thank-you emails to attendees with links to presentations, videos, or other event content.
- Interactive and engaging sessions: Plan sessions in such a way that they keep your audience involved and connected with the ongoing topic. Pursue discussions and engage with the attendees through activities like Q&A, polls, and one-to-one interaction with the speaker.
- Finally, ask for feedback: Send a survey to attendees after the event to get feedback on what they liked and didn’t like. Use this information to improve the attendee experience next time!
EVENT PROMOTION IDEAS
1. Optimize your event registration website
Your event website is the most powerful tool you can use to promote your event. By choosing an interesting event website template that captures the atmosphere of your event, you will immediately capture the attention of users. A well-optimized event website provides users with the information they need and serves as a registration and payment center. Here are different ways you can optimize your event website.
Usability testing
Web visitors form an impression of your website in just five seconds. It is important that your website and design immediately attract visitors, and you provide the object of interest.
Thermal mapping
Heatmaps are color-coded to visually show user activity on your website. Learn how much time visitors spend on your site, what features they find most interesting, and even how far down the page they scroll!
A/B testing
A/B testing allows you to compare two different versions of the same web page and compare the audience. While A/B testing usually requires a certain level of technical skill, you can use tools like Optimizely to test different design features, headlines, and calls to action.
Network analysis
Do you use Google Analytics to track your website visitors? Trick question: Your answer should be “Yes, of course”! Analytics has become the most important tool to measure the effectiveness of your website and analyze how many visitors can become paying participants.
2. Offer Early Bird discounts
We all love discounts. A surefire way to get more people to register for your event is to offer exclusive early-bird deals. Set a clear deadline for advance pricing or offer only a limited number of tickets. Sparse marketing creates a strong buzz for your event and entices attendees with a discount they can’t refuse.
Use social media
Social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn have proven to be popular tools for promoting events when they reach a wide audience.
Facebook has over 30 million active users in the UK, with around 80% frequent users.
Here’s how you can use Facebook to attract people to your event:
- Create a Facebook page for your event and share it with different groups.
- If the budget allows, also use a paid advertising campaign. This gives a quick return on a small investment.
- Promote your event with an event marketing partner that can make a big difference in attracting audiences and increasing registrations.
- Use Facebook Live Video to stream your event promotion activities.
- Create an engaging hashtag for your event and find creative ways to make it a trend.
- You can even run a contest that encourages entrants to retweet and include the event hashtag for a chance to win a prize!
- Create a list of influencers and target them with cleverly formatted @mentions.
- Host a chat and share live streams.
LinkedIn is an effective advertising tool to attract more event attendees. With a large professional user base, LinkedIn can help attract the right audience to your event. You can:
- Write an informative article with stock value.
- Play a short video that highlights the exciting things about your event.
- Join different groups and promote your event
3. Use ad retargeting
Many users visit your event website, but for some reason, they get distracted and click away from the landing page. You need to target users who are clearly interested but may have shorter attention spans. Retargeting ads in your Google AdWords account and ticket page will remind visitors of your event when they visit other websites. When retargeting your ads, you should consider the following:
- Do not attempt to sell tickets to any website visitor.
- Identify your audience – Want to target those who clicked at checkout?
- Check your tracking code correctly. Retargeting will not work unless you add the correct tracking code. With Google Tag Manager, you can manage the tags and pixels of your retargeting campaigns.
- Create multiple ad templates. Different ads work on different websites and devices. Don’t limit yourself to creating just one model. Instead, come up with new creative messages, images, and colors to maximize your ad retargeting results.
4. Create exciting video content
If there’s one way to make your event the center of attention, it’s to create a presentation that can go viral. This could include riding your own bike in popular challenges, organizing a flash mob, shooting a video of adoring puppies, etc. Be creative! Remember to keep messages clever and subtle.
5. Make a lighted roller
Create a highlight reel of the best moments from previous editions of your event, or publish a trailer of the keynote speakers and activities planned for the upcoming event. You can even add a celebrity guest photo! Promotional features can be short, sponsored videos that are shared across all social channels; they are sure to generate a lot of interest in your event.
6. Create an infographic
Visual content is important to increase social engagement and promote your event. Include storytelling in the form of infographics to convey all the information about your event in a simple and fun way. Because infographics are highly shareable, they are an effective and inexpensive visual tactic to promote your event.
7. Mascots can be hired for your event!
Never underestimate the effectiveness of a cute mascot! Mascots that symbolize your event principles and give positive emotions to guests are a terrific way to promote your event. People will want to take photographs with the mascot and share them on social media, improving the event’s brand value. This option, however, should only be considered if your event spans three to four days.
8. Influencer Marketing
Research from Social Media Today shows that influencer marketing produces 11x the ROI of traditional advertising campaigns. About 94% of marketers have found this to be a very effective marketing tactic to achieve their goals.
Today, influencer marketing is an integral part of any event promotion campaign. The principle is simple – influencers and brands have a larger and more loyal audience, so a good partnership with someone will ensure that you get enough registrants for your event.
Promote your event by partnering with a key influencer, perhaps an industry expert, who knows your brand and is a true advocate for your event. Through storytelling, contests, and regular brand promotion, an influencer can significantly increase your brand awareness among relevant potential customers.
9. Design AR-based events
Event planners are leveraging the creative potential and marketing power of AR technology to develop immersive games that increase audience participation at an event. Brands can also gain attention by sponsoring prizes or including their logos in AR ads.
10. Specify the location of your campaign.
Geolocation is the new buzzword in event marketing as marketers look for new ways to engage customers through location-based targeting. Even the aforementioned technologies, like AR advertising, are based on the concept of geotagging.
Combine artificial intelligence and predictive analytics with geotagging to narrow your audiences and adapt them to their specific needs. By using localized content and local influencers, you can take personalization to a new level. Encourage data collection by highlighting benefits and advantages; consumers naturally care about their privacy!
11. Include QR codes
Quick Response (QR) codes have been around for a while. You can see them in packaging, consumer goods, magazines, and brochures. Most smartphones have built-in QR readers, so there are several ways to take advantage of this technology to create great event promotion ideas. For example:
Attach the QR code to digital or printed sponsorship material distributed at your event. Since printed products expire after a few days, a QR code can provide attendees with the latest news about your event with a simple scan.
Whether you’re marketing your event using digital or traditional billboards, a QR code allows anyone to scan it and learn more about your event. The information available through the code should be interesting enough for your audience to want to attend your event.
12. Market your (branded) merchandise
Another fantastic event promotion idea is to give out exclusive stuff to guests before, during, and after the event, such as branded caps, T-shirts, tote bags, or digital paraphernalia such as pop-sockets. It encourages people to return to your event year after year because, after all, everyone loves free stuff!
Conclusion
Event promotion is all about creating awareness, generating interest, and driving attendance for your event. It is a vital part of any event planning process as it helps you to reach your event to a maximum audience. Not just the audience but also the targeted one. Many years ago, event advertising used to occur only offline, but now it is also done online. In the future, event marketing is going to be a major aspect of company plans.
Be it a small-scale business or a large-scale enterprise, every organization needs a strategic event promotion plan to effectively market its event in the marketplace and achieve the overall event goal. By implementing effective advertising strategies such as leveraging social media marketing, running email campaigns, performing content marketing, using paid ads, and partnering with industry leaders, you can maximize your event’s reach and significantly increase event registration numbers.
From optimizing your event registration website and offering early bird discounts to utilizing retargeting ads and creating video content, each event promotion idea will contribute to boosting attendance and building excitement for your event. Whether it is a webinar, a product launch, or any event format(virtual, in-person & hybrid), the ideas we have covered in this post will surely boost your event registration.
FAQ
Event promotion often called event advertising, or event marketing, is a process of spreading the word about an upcoming event and reaching potential target audiences. It involves a variety of promotional activities such as social media marketing, email advertising, content marketing, paid advertising, influencer marketing, public relations, and more. Event marketing aims to invite attendees physically or virtually, drive ticket sales, engage with them, and conduct certain activities.
Facebook and Instagram are first on the list if you want to get your event to a broader audience. For professional events, LinkedIn would be ideal. However, the best social media platform for promoting your event depends on your target audience.
It would be great if you begin promoting your event 3 to 4 weeks before the event. This will give attendees ample time to plan their schedules and RSVP, especially if they need to travel.
Track metrics such as attendance rate, registration numbers, ticket sales, lead generated, and conversion rate to gauge the effectiveness of your event promotion strategies.
Yes, it is a wonderful idea to promote your event both offline as well as online. Combining both online and offline marketing will really make your promotional efforts more effective and help reach more people to the event. More importantly, offline marketing allows you to make deeper and more personal connections with the target audience, thereby easily increasing the reach of the event through offline channels.
Absolutely, by publishing a blog post, sending targeted emails, doing organic promotion on social media platforms, joining online communities, free guest blogging, and leveraging word-of-mouth, you can effectively promote your event for free.
Event planning objectives include increasing brand awareness, promoting products or services to relevant audiences, networking with industry experts, generating qualified leads, and building relationships with potential stakeholders.
